MOVIE · 1995

12 Monkeys

MysterySci-FiThriller129 min

In 2035, prisoner James Cole is sent back through time to trace the virus that drove humanity underground, but a misfire drops him in 1990, where he’s treated as delusional and locked in a psychiatric ward. Bruce Willis is Cole, a man chasing fragments of memory while trying to convince Madeleine Stowe’s Dr. Kathryn Railly that the catastrophe is still ahead. Brad Pitt turns up as Jeffrey Goines, the volatile son of a virologist whose ties to the Army of the 12 Monkeys may point toward the coming outbreak. Terry Gilliam frames it with institutional dread, ruined futures, and a looping sense of paranoia.